Social Media Marketing

http://www.brafton.com/news/social-media-marketing-and-fries-how-mcdonalds-monitors-social-chatter-for-brand-success

This article talks about how companies like McDonald's take part in social media marketing.  This article explains that it is more complicated than it seems.  There are regulations and laws which says which tweets or comments the company can and cannot endorse.  They explain that McDonald's is a companies that plans as they go with their social media marketing.  They seem what is trending and popular and go from there.  This has been very successful for McDonald's   The article also says that companies that do not take part in this type of marketing will fall behind soon.  They believe that this type of marketing is the new things that is making companies even more successful.  They believe that social media marketing is the new way to gain new consumers and more brand loyalty.  
 Do you think that social media marketing gives companies a bigger edge in the competition?

In Response to Tammy Chou

Which category of new product do you think is the most popular, why? Do you think by looking at the new product of Diet Pepsi with its new packaging it would target you to buy the product?

I think adding to a new product line is the most popular.  I think this because if a product line is successful it will be much easier to add a product with the same trusted name.  This trusted name makes it possible for the new product to succeed.  I feel with products like soda a new packaging would not target me to buy the product.  With sodas people know what they like or don't like and usually will not try something new just because of packaging alone.  If someone drinks Coke I don't think that they are going to try Pepsi just because of a new can.  New packaging could be using for other products, I just feel that when it comes to soda a new packaging will not help sales.  

What products do you think could benefit from new packaging? 

Cause Related Marketing

I have noticed lately that it seems like many products have some form of cause related marketing.  One example that comes to my mind is the Save Lids to Save Lives, that Yoplait yogurt does.  The program says that each lid that is returned they will donate 10 cents for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  This is obviously a good cause and most people would want to help cure cancer, but obviously it is a marketing plan in the long run.  I have not looked for into the program than just what the website says but for many cases there are loopholes where the organization does not receive all the money that is implied.  Because this program has been going on for a while I believe that it is a good program that is in place, but others are not always like that, like product RED we talked about in class.  This was short lived because it seemed they made the money they wanted to make and then were done with it. 

Do you feel like these marketing plans affect how you buy products, and do you look into whether or not all the money goes to the cause?

In response to Will Ferguson

Do you think personalized ads are good or bad? Why?

When it comes to the internet I do not mind the idea of personalized ads.  Some people get very angry about the fact the Facebook is taking your history in order to find ads the fit you, in my case I would rather look at ads the relate to me than random ads on the internet.  There is no way to avoid advertising on the internet so why would not you want it to be about something that interests you?  I do understand people's arguments that it is an invasion of privacy what Facebook is doing, but they do this in order to find ads that may interest you.  I would much rather have an internet with no advertising so I can do whatever I want on the internet and not look at ads all day, but I know that this is never going to happen.  This is why I do not mind that Facebook tries to make ads that relate to you.  In the long run I would be much more interested in ads like music or clothes that interest me, than say cars or housing that does not.  It is not the most ideal situation when it comes to the internet, but for me it is the most reasonable one.  

Do you pay attention to online advertising or just ignore it? Why?

Advertising in Movies

http://www.cracked.com/article_16574_the-10-most-shameless-product-placements-in-movie-history.htm

We have all seen advertising in many movies but this article makes it clear how far companies will go when it comes to getting their products seen in specific movies.  When watching a movie sometimes you do not even notice the advertising of products that is taking place, but after reading this article it becomes very aware of the advertising in the movie industry.  In the article they specifically talk about reeses pieces in the movie ET. I am sure that many people have seen this movie and never though anything of the fact the ET is attracted to reeses pieces. I know that for me watching this movies would not make me want to buy or not buy their product.  But, in this article you can see how far companies can go to put their products in a feature film.  People go to the movie in order to see the film and not buy products so does this advertising really work? At least for myself I feel feel that these advertising have no affect on me in movies, but obviously companies would not be doing this if they did not see an increase in sales once the movie has hit theaters.

Do you think that advertising in movies has a large affect on the viewers?

In Response to Tammy Chou

Can you think of a time where you purchased something that targeted your lifestyles?  Were you satisfied with this product?

I remember at one point a while ago a kept seeing commercial for a face wash on TV it seemed like every time a commercial came on.  It seems like all beauty product commercial are always really appealing and look nice (at least to girls).  At this point in time, I had run out of the face wash I normally used and when I went to CVS, I saw the new product and figured why not?  It has been on all the commercials.   I honestly do not even remember what brand or type it was which shows that I was affected by their marketing plan.  I had seen so many commercials that were appealing to me that I bought the product when I could have easily gotten nearly the same thing for less expensive.  I would not say that I was satisfied or dissatisfied with product it left no affect on me.  I guess you can say I am the type of person that is just willing to try something new.  I am sure if I saw a huge difference in my skin I would have kept buying the product but it did not do anything different than a generic face wash would have done for me.  In this companies case I was their target market and it made me buy their product.  I am sure many people have came across the same situation when seeing the same commercial over and over again that they think why not just try it?

Do you feel companies insistent advertising are to get your initially buy, and not for the quality of their product? 

Grammy Advertising

http://www.decodedscience.com/the-grammys-2013-the-financial-winners/25728

In the article "The Grammys 2013: The Financial Winners" they talk about how advertising during the Grammys is much less expensive but is growing in popularity.  They explain the huge price difference in commercial slots from this past Sunday's Grammys to last Sunday's Super bowl.  (3.8 million vs. 800,000 per 30 sec commercial).  It is explained that the commercial price and the viewing number of the Grammys had increasingly increased over the past few years.  At first you would think that there is a much different target market between the Grammys and the Super bowl and that could be the reason but the huge increasing in 30 second slot prices.  However, because the viewers have increased over the past years it may make companies rethink their strategies in advertising during the Grammys.  It has always been well known that the Super bowl commercials reach millions of viewers so it is a no brainer for companies to want to advertise, but know it is seen in the past few years that companies are wanting to broaden the viewers of their commercials.  Football and music are very different so it can be understood why there are different companies advertising between these different programs, but with rising viewers would it make since to start advertising in other genres?  I think that the rising price of commercials during the Grammys is because of the fact the companies that would not normally advertise during the Grammys are trying to take advantage of the increasing viewers, which would also increase in the viewers of their commercials. Are companies trying to reach a different target market by advertising during new TV programs?